Mastermind behind Mumbai-based bogus call center racket duping US citizens is a 23-year-old youth

Bogus call centre employees being escorted by a policeman

Zee Media Bureau

Mumbai: It is shocking to know that the brain behind the Mumbai-based call centre, stealing millions of dollars from American citizens by posing as tax officials, is just a 23 year old youth called Shaggy.

Mumbai police said that Shahgar Thakkar, alias Shaggy and his aide Tapash are absconding since the police raid in which 70 staffers were arrested and 630 were served notice last week.

Some of the employees in the call centre located on Mira road used to pretend to be officials of the US Internal Revenue Service or the immigration department., while some were trained as computer repairing, servicing or credit cards agents.

The workers in this bogus call centre used to call up US citizens saying that they had defaulted on tax payments and needed to pay up. By whipping the fear of authorities, the gullible people were duped into revealing their bank details, and the employees of the call centre would then withdraw money from their accounts.

The scam allegedly claimed the life of an elderly American woman, who was threatened after refusing to meet the demands of the call centre employees posing as US revenue officials. 

As per reports, police believe that the bogus call centre employees were collecting around 10 million rupees ($150,000) a day.

Investigating authorities in the US are in touch with the Mumbai police. The police suspects that the scam may be deeper than thought initially, which could even be running out of homes.